Alex sat on a raised stone in the garden.
Connor didn't cease his training, continuing with his clean swings and timely pivots, each movement sharp and practiced.
Alex, whose blue eyes looked a little vacant, sat calmly while swinging his legs in a steady rhythm.
The voice that appeared during his breakthrough burdened him more than it elevated him.
There was only one thing ringing in his head now—grow stronger, and learn everything about himself.
He found it a miracle that he hadn't lost control yet, despite his lacking sense of self.
The voice during his breakthrough had tried saying something about control and dissolution, but it unfortunately couldn't relay its final warning.
His dad had placed a seal on him via a ritual to slow his growth and minimize the chances of losing control.
"Have you heard the rumours?" Alex asked with those slightly vacant eyes.
"Yeah, about the guest from the capital and his training method?"
Alex nodded slightly. "I may honestly have to go against Mum. I'm sure she wouldn't let me explain once she hears about the training."
Alex clearly remembered her every word that night. He had been only thirteen when he woke up in tears and pain. His mum had sobbed for him, tears filling her eyes as she held him close.
She had said to Alex that quiet night:
"Alex, listen to me.
The world will tell you to finish yourself—
to seal every wound, harden every weakness, sharpen every edge.
But perfection is a cage, not a destiny.
Your incompleteness is not your downfall.
It is your fire.
A complete man cannot grow.
A complete man cannot dream.
A complete man cannot rise.
It is the unfinished blade that returns to the forge.
It is the unfinished soul that seeks its purpose.
And it is the unfinished boy who becomes something the world has never seen.
You think your emptiness makes you fragile.
But that emptiness is the very space where your future will be built.
Do not fear what you lack, Alex.
Fear only the day when you stop striving to become more."
But to Alex, it still felt like only he could understand himself…
He believed his mum's words mended his unstable emotions in every way.
But there were days when Alex felt stitched together from pieces that didn't match—shreds of anger, slivers of hope, fragments of someone he used to be.
He knew people expected him to stand tall, to be unshakable. Yet every night, in the silence only he could hear, he felt it again—that hollow ache in his heart, the sense that something vital was missing. A part of him he could neither name nor reach.
He hated it.
Not because it weakened him—but because it reminded him he was still human in a world that demanded monsters or gods.
But maybe—just maybe—that emptiness was the reason he still fought.
A silent promise that there was more to him than what he had been forced to become.
More to him than the pain he pretended not to feel.
Alex wasn't complete yet.
But he was learning that incompleteness isn't a curse.
Sometimes it's the doorway to becoming someone stronger.
This had always driven him to grow, even before the voice in his head revealed its existence.
Connor noticed Alex's brows furrow slightly and asked, "What's on your mind?"
Alex looked toward him and smiled shallowly. "How Mum would feel if I just went ahead and participated in the training without getting her approval."
"She honestly deserves to know. At least give her a hint or something… Maybe lie about going on another expedition?" Connor suggested.
Alex shook his head. "She's still a Transcendent-stage bloomer with network sources. She wouldn't buy the excuse. I'm considering going first and facing her anger later. I have high hopes for this training for some reason."
"I will also partake in the training…" Connor paused his sword practice before sheathing his blade and storing it.
"I awakened before you, but you bloomed first. I know growth rate depends on how close one is to the world, but I feel my connection wouldn't lose out to the top students of our academy. I should breakthrough before we set out on this training... My only regret is that my awakened mastery couldn't transcend."
Alex jumped down from where he sat and followed Connor out of the garden. The relic flew over to Connor's shoulder and perched there.
Connor often worried about the possibility of losing his awakened relic when he bloomed. But academy teachings said the possibility was greatly reduced depending on how closely tied one was to their awakened artifact. So the thought didn't worry him as it should, especially since his relic felt like an extension of his senses.
He was so close to his relic, in fact, that he named it Aero and considered him a pet.
The chance of losing the relic from the previous rank was even lower if the integrator didn't change their part. And an integrator's part could only be changed once—at the bloom rank.
Alex scratched his head and said quietly, "I need to shop for body armour. I need to buy at least three… Who knows when the training will end?"
Connor replied joyously, his earlier seriousness disappearing. "The principal told me what the mutated guardian dropped—a sword that can change into armour. He said he handed it to an expert artificer to turn into a nodachi.
"He later promised to make it into a katana to fit my sword preference!"
Alex had already seen the sword and its armour form. They weren't to his liking. His dad had even taken him to a secret weaponry, but he found no armour that resonated with his combat style.
He planned to visit the adventurers' market in the Adventurers' HQ… or check the biggest market in Coeron before embarking on the journey.